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Abstract:
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In the years immediately following the 1990 reunification of Germany , an increase in anti -foreigner violence threatened the stability of reunification efforts and exacerbated tensions between the East and the West . This paper is concerned with analyzing the underlying causes of the increase in anti -foreigner violence in Germany in the 1990s by evaluating first the period of reunification and the corresponding rise in support for extreme right groups in the former -East Germany . In addition , the history of violence and anti -foreigner sentiment in both East and West Germany are analyzed in conjunction with tensions caused by reunification to ascertain the origins of the post -reunification rise in xenophobic violence . Through this analysis , I show that violence in Germany in the early -1990s cannot be connected to the National Socialist past but rather , that both increases in anti -foreigner sentiment and corresponding violence result from a history in East and West Germany of ethnocentrism and social -exclusion policies directed at foreigners . Finally , this paper focuses on evaluating whether the post -reunification rise of violence in Germany is a unique event or whether it can be better understood as a wider European phenomenon . |